‘Dancing with the Stars’ eliminated contestant: ‘When they played the montage, it was like I died!’

Image Credit: Adam Taylor/ABC

Carson Kressley may not have always earned the highest scores, but he certainly delivered the biggest laughs on Dancing with the Stars this fall. Too bad the guy who kept the judges and his fellow celebrities in stitches didn’t last to see another day under the mirror ball: Kressley, whose jive with Anna Trebunskaya: was called “a crowning achievement in madness” on Monday, became the latest contestant to live Dancing with the Stars.

“At the end when they played the montage, it was like, oh my god I died!” Kressley told reporters after Tuesday’s results show. “I even started to well up a bit. Am I going to fade out and is there going to be a date [of death]? And then there was Careless Whisper and we were dancing our final dance … you’re never gonna dance again…and I am going to dance again, dammit! This process has made me so much more aware of my body, my posture, the ways your clothes fit, the way people move.”

Having earned the lowest score on Monday (19 out of 30 for their jive), the duo knew they were toast. “You don’t want to see anybody go home,” Kressley said. “Everybody has been really trying their heart out.  I wish I could have nailed the dance, then we might still be here. Anna has worked so hard, she’s so patient, so kind.  She’s like a hot Mother Teresa.  She’s probably going to name her first baby after me. Boy or girl, it kinda works either way.”

Joking aside, Kressley spoke fondly of the other bonds he made while dancing on the show — namely with Chaz Bono. ” He and I have a lot in common,” said Kressley, who is gay. “We’re used to feeling like outsiders and not great about ourselves. That’s what was so gratifying about this entire experience. From the moment I met Anna to the moment they said you guys have to go home and everyone surrounded us and hugged us, we felt like we belonged. And that’s something really special for me. It’s not something I always felt…um and um, I almost got emotional for a bit! “

“You did!” Trebunskaya said, nodding.

“Stuff it down! Stuff it down!” Kressley shouted to himself, shaking off the heavy moment. ” That’s what been so phenomenal about this show, this experience. You get so much support from the cast. And fans, people who are tweeting and sending you emails saying, just be you! We love you for who you are! That’s really positive stuff. This show did exactly what I hoped it would do for me…challenge me. Have the courage to jump off into the deep end and learn to swim, even if it messes up your hair.”

Kressley didn’t want to predict whether the show would ever feature two men dancing together. (He joked before the season began that he hoped his partner would be Maksim Chmerkovskiy). “Anything could happen, though if you come to West Hollywood on a Saturday night, you may see some,” Kressley said, laughing. “But I couldn’t have gotten a better partner.”

Now that he’s hidden all of his costumes in hopes the show doesn’t notice they’re gone, Kressley is now looking forward to going back to his old life of personal makeovers. He has a clothing line coming out on Shop NBC plus his continued work for OWN. And if that doesn’t work out, there’s always his budding relationship with Nancy Grace, who interrupted his press interviews by planting a big one on his lips.

“I kissed an HLN reporter and I liked it!” he exclaimed afterwards. “Now, let’s talk about Nancy Grace.”